The Autochrome; Color photos? Just add potatoes.

[@Xathon]

"He had this brainstorm and didn't do anything with it for 6 years" That's way too relatable

[@sjoerdvogel3352]

James Clerk Maxwell was a busy guy. He had a physics revolution to start. You should look him up.

[@guppy719]

@@sjoerdvogel3352 Yeah if you ever heard of Maxwell's equations thats him.

[@DinnerForkTongue]

@@sjoerdvogel3352 And a teeny tiny little demon to christen with his name.

[@soaringvulture]

Maxwell was a mathematical physicist, not an experimentalist. I'm surprised he went through with the tests at all. I mean, he had it figured out. No need to see if it actually worked.

[@hakonaasekristiansen2973]

@@sjoerdvogel3352 Some say he also spent some time being prosecuted after some unfortunate episodes with a hammer.

[@aridragonbeard745]

This brings new meaning to "potato quality camera"

[@mistersync100]

dammm

[@apelpampr]

and "potato pc"

[@myrealusername2193]

So there are cameras worse than potato quality lol. This looks quite good

[@saintfisuto1072]

Are you familiar with Corridor Crew?

[@aridragonbeard745]

@@saintfisuto1072 yup, subscribed

[@besknighter]

So, LCD is literally just a digital version of a PSD (Potato Starch Displays)... NICE! This is so cool!

[@SianaGearz]

What he was presumably hinting at is that the imaging layer in the autochrome is a solid silver crystal. As opposed to the liquid crystal of the LCD, which is the liquid crystal display.

[@QualityDoggo]

CRT Phosphor and Quantum Dot too (kinda)

[@steamer2k319]

Maybe this explains why: when we open a modern PSD in Photoshop, the image looks like it was shot on a potato.

[@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721]

"Autochrome" is a pretty good name but Potato Starch Display would've been so much cooler.

[@ashliehiggins]

OLEDs too with the organic part.

[@SapphireCrook]

Those pictures from around 4:19 were so crisp, yet ancient, I felt like a century ago was just yesterday. What a profound feeling.

[@melmoomlem7321]

22:15 when he zooms in on the village street. That photo could have been taken yesterday.

[@DanTDMJace]

@@melmoomlem7321seems more like a 2008 photo, still very impressive

[@ScarlettStunningSpace]

This feeling is something I've never felt until I got older, especially with these photos. I mostly look at the details on people's faces and clothes. With people's faces, their wrinkles tell a story that goes beyond words, as our psychological state effects the way our wrinkles come in, so I like to imagine how they might have felt. With clothes, the colors blew me away because you really never see that.

[@thorham1346]

A century ago isn't ancient, it's the modern age.

[@ScarlettStunningSpace]

@@thorham1346 Compared to my life, yes. In the scope of everything, we don't exist. It's up to your perspective

[@thisnamehaschangedthanksto8185]

The best thing about being a follower of this channel since its early days, is being able to enjoy watching Alec's hair growth

[@sebastiangorka200]

he has a beautiful mane these days, quite exquisite

[@DinnerForkTongue]

Ain't it? He could totally star in a L'Oreal ad 😜

[@zaneaguilar5274]

It looks like he's lost weight too

[@DinnerForkTongue]

@@zaneaguilar5274 That he did. I can say with good certainty that he's now thinner than me.

[@SpiritmanProductions]

"Once sorted to the desired sortiness..." Unbeatable script-writing. ;-)

[@platinummyrr]

Love the script!

[@danoconnell1833]

I was just going to comment on that. For a science-minded presenter, he sure does play fast and loose with language. :-D (And I love it...)

[@Arnavion]

You might say he has the script-writing completely sorted out.

[@Klaevin]

"just remove some green" man, I wish he hadn't put the words there. just let people either stay confused or make out that adding more red and blue would solve the problem

[@kenmore01]

@@Klaevin Well, for maximum material efficiency, getting super fine tipped tweezers and picking out the green is best.

[@corwin881]

Dear Alec, thank you very much. You: "isn't this fascinating?" - me, from the whole of my heart, answering loudly: "Yes!"

[@harriehausenman8623]

Same reaction for me. And when he asked, "do you want to know how it works" I was like yesyesyes, pleeeeaaase. 🙂

[@JayFochs1337]

Saaaame just "YES?!"

[@balintborsos3523]

This is just so amazing

[@sphygo]

This was an especially good episode. Big thanks to Jon for sharing this with us all.

[@duongchuc1834]

ok

[@mikerichards6065]

It is well worth seeking out the BBC Series and accompanying book 'The Wonderful World of Albert Kahn'. From 1908, Kahn spent a fortune sending people all around the world to record it in breathtaking autochrome colour for 22 years! Some of his photographers recorded the last years of Imperial China and the Ottoman Empire as well as combat in World War One. His collection of 72,000 autochromes are now housed at Le Musée Départemental Albert-Kahn in Boulogne-Billancourt.

[@Richardincancale]

I came to mention the same thing! There was an exhibition of his works a couple of years ago in the Paris institute of Architects. The photographs were fantastic, and blown up to large sizes the starch grains give a pointillist feel to them.

[@SMGJohn]

Over 3000 pictures a year, damn that must been bloody expensive!

[@Richardincancale]

@@SMGJohn He was a rich banker - I think he was ok!

[@StarCrusher.]

They should digitise them and put them online. Such a time traveller's treasure trove.

[@AndrewBehm]

Stories like this of rich guys spending their fortunes on dope art always bum me out a bit. Nowadays they just send themselves to space or buy social networking sites.

[@jamescerone]

I love how this has become the photography channel that Alec always secretly wanted it to be

[@bcubed72]

Well, that AND rants about toasters.

[@creeperdragon101reboot3]

@@bcubed72TOASTERRRRRRRRRRRS!

[@Jarmundx]

In a very roundabout way but yeah and i love his content for it

[@jamesanthony5874]

18:39 You know, this is remarkably similar to a demonstration I saw once where the presenter took an excel spreadsheet, and entered values for red, green, and blue in alternating cells along each row, then set the color value of each cell to it's stored value in the appropriate color. When you zoomed back far enough the three cells would kind of blur into a single "pixel" of color, and with them all combined you'd have a photograph that consisted of nothing but cells of alternating color.

[@johnm2012]

If you took the actual values from a small .BMP file you could display a real picture that way.

[@thesoupin8or673]

Matt Parker! He rocks. He runs the standupmaths KZbin channel if you're not a regular already

[@HebaruSan]

"Heat Pump Guy has a new video out" Wife: "..." "It's not about heat pumps." Wife: "OK, fine."

[@GargoyleInfestation]

"Heat Pump Guy" 🤣🤣🤣

[@Mike-vs9vo]

Giggles

[@karenhaller9988]

As one of the two percent of females who follow this channel... I did the exact same thing. I'll get to the 45 extra minutes on heat pumps, I promise!

[@Nadia1989]

You mean Video Format Wars guy? I still remember the CED saga.

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@karenhaller9988 sometimes I wonder if I show up in thestatistics or if Google calls me a guy in them…

[@brettd5884]

Your explanation of the "bleach" step rang fire bells for me. In high school junior year, I had a few class periods that could have been study hall, but I chose instead to be a library/photography assistant. One of my fairly frequent tasks was processing and mount color slide film. That process included bleach, exposure and second development steps. I always wondered what those steps were doing, until now (50 years later), you've explained that - thanks!

[@user-wc6vb3fn1s]

BW bleach isn't the same as color bleach. In color process, it transforms developed silver back into "undeveloped" form so it can be removed by fixer, because in color film only the dyes are left behind, all silver is removed. But in bw reversal process, bleach removes only developed silver, not reacting with undeveloped, so it can be then developed once more to form the positive

[@L_Train]

you look the the library/photography assistant type

[@L_Train]

@Get on the cross and don’t look back if you're on a cross you really can only look forward. You can look side to side I guess, is that good or bad?

[@kevinmartin7760]

@@user-wc6vb3fn1s That's true for colour negatives but not colour reversal (slide) film. In slides the first developer develops the negative as silver particles only, then those are bleached out using the same type of bleach as the BW reversal process. The film is then fully-exposed and developed again with an additive in the developer that couples the reduction of the silver crystals with the formation of dyes (with the specific colour coming from substances already in the emulsion layer). You then have to bleach out that second batch of silver as well, leaving just the dyes. The first bleaching also removes the anti-halation layer and the built-in filter layer (yellow?) that forms part of the multi-layer emulsion; both of these are formed from silver.

[@user-wc6vb3fn1s]

@@kevinmartin7760 Nope, true for slide too. The sequence is bw dev->wash/stop->reexposure->color dev->rest. Even Kodachrome used a regular bleach. No color forms in bw developer, so no dyes form in areas that were developed in it, so in color dev dyes form only where there are silver halides present. >addittive The color developer doesn't have an "additive". The only developing agent(well, the only agent that is intended for developing, slight bw dev properties of hydroxylamine are a side effect) in color developer is CD-3 or 4. It develops the silver, oxidizes, and it's oxidized form reacts with the dye couplers, forming the dyes. In the end all or almost all silver is developed, it is then rehalogenised in the bleach and is removed in fixer. No need to directly remove the metallic silver, not to mention that bw bleach would likely damage the couplers

[@pacproduct]

Ha ha, last subtitles are priceless! :D "Why, perhaps potatoes are the secret to time travel! Probably not, but then again one of the best ways to spice up your potatoes? It's only a matter of thyme." xD Thanks Alec for your outstanding work :)

[@hunterwylie6969]

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed ending comments like these on his videos!

[@renakunisaki]

You can make batteries out of potatoes too, which in theory could power an electric flash bulb...

[@zappababe8577]

How amazing it is to see colour images of people from 1910! It's almost like bringing them back to life again!

[@thisherehandleIdospout]

I know right? And being before WWI, the Russian Revolution, all of that... it's all the more important to do so, in my opinion.

[@TimeBucks]

That one is pretty cool

[@msi_raja]

DO NOT POST ANY REPLY! DO NOT MENTION ANYTHING ABOUT TIMEBUCKS

[@peterlinddk]

When I saw the finished “color mosaic” I was about to write a comment on how eeriely similar that seemed to a Bayer filter used in digital cameras. But of course you also mentioned that! Wonderful technology, and thank you for keeping opening our eyes to what was before digital!

[@Sekir80]

There's 69 likes on your comment. I won't ruin it but I'd like to know that I like! ;)

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

That's where the idea came from. The main work was deciding how to lay it out, and to use twice as many green filtered photosites than either red or blue. Also, whether to use RGB or CMY as the basis. It's essentially a way of taking 4 exposures simultaneously focused at the same distance. (1 red, 1 blue and 2 green)

[@IDoNotLikeHandlesOnYT]

What's even more similar to a Bayer filter is the Dufaycolor process: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dufaycolor I have no idea if anybody's tried that one recently, but I hope so. I like the look of the grid texture in the example photo in the Wikipedia article. (You'll probably have to open it in full size to see it.)

[@matsv201]

You probobly could make a Bayer filter this way.... just having the computer calculate what color what subpixel is via test photo

[@IDoNotLikeHandlesOnYT]

@@matsv201 No (if you're talking about the process the video's about), because the color filter array is randomized for each photo you take.

[@DuncanBooth]

I saw an exhibition of stereoscopic autochromes a few years ago: 3D colour photos from around 1912 was mind-blowing.

[@Just_Sara]

Oh, wow, I gotta look that up! Okay, yeah, not disappointed.

[@hjalfi]

@@Just_Sara Go look up Gorsky's restored photos, too. He made a concerted effort to document the Russia of the time, taking about 10,000 colour photographs --- and we're talking about Tsarist Russia here! Sadly most of them were lost in the Revolution (although they might still exist somewhere), but the ones that remain are stunning.

[@RAndrewNeal]

Tough to view properly on a computer monitor, but once I was able to "activate" the illusion, the very stereoscopy of the image was mind-blowing. Far better than the sharpest, highest resolution camera out there; it's like actually being there. And now I wish all pictures were stereoscopic and that I could view them that way. I wonder, with VR o the rise, if stereoscopic photography/videography will become more popular. I might buy a VR headset just so I could view them.

[@Just_Sara]

@@RAndrewNeal I love stereograms! I'd been finding them in the real world (wallpaper patterns, books lined up, etc.) as a kid for a few years before Magic Eye posters became a thing in the 90s, which totally blew my mind! For anyone who doesn't already know, there are 2 directions your eyes can go to see stereograms with no special equipment: cross-eyed or wall-eyed. Cross-eyed is the MUCH easier way to see them, but sometimes you have to find a way to get the pictures to trade places to make it work if it was originally set up for the other direction. It's nice that it's often doable with no specialized equipment that way, though there can be some set up.

[@RAndrewNeal]

@@Just_Sara I've had my eyes focus on different spots of regular patterns before; it's trippy, but the stereoscopic photographs are on a level all their own. I guess I viewed it wall-eyed. I placed a divider between my eyes to aid in the illusion so neither eye could see the other's image, and I was able to merge the two into one, and it's stunning.

[@AppliedScience]

Fascinating! I never knew about this. Thanks for the video and thorough explanation.

[@qwertyasdf66]

Are you going to have a go at modernising the process now? I'm thinking micro beads of coloured epoxy.

[@SoberAddiction]

@@qwertyasdf66 ball mill and a digital gram scale would help.

[@Yogachara]

@Get on the cross and don’t look back In that case: Jesus, can you send me an autochrome photograph pls?

[@jonhilty7434]

Hey there! I'd love to pick your brain on a problem I've been trying to solve in the Lippmann photographic process! It's especially relevant, since it's method of color reproduction is more akin to your latest video, rather than a 3-color model. Let me know if you'd be interested!

[@Nielsquake0]

Applied Science :) glad to see you on this video! I'm on the verge of replicating your DIY ct scan project! Care to share your code for the rotation thingy, that might be usefull

[@PsychadelicoDuck]

It's really spine-tingling seeing these turn-of-the-century true-color plates because they look... so modern. It really brings the past forward and makes it seem not different from today.

[@aerodigital]

I spent an evening wondering why film grain exists and it turns out you answer every question around that just this week. I had a hard time getting the right answers before you released this video, so it stands that you worked pretty hard getting everything together to show us. Well done, you are an asset to education.

[@Deliveredmean42]

Funny, because it's literally in the name!

[@lbochtler]

One of the best, if not the best video on the Autochrome process. The knowledge presented here took me years to accumulate. Well done.

[@mediocrefunkybeat]

The landscape autochromes at the end of the video made my jaw drop. Absolutely astonishing. I had no idea about this technique and the incredible fidelity they could produce. You've always produced great content but your videos on photography are, frankly, seminal.

[@frenchfriar]

I've always appreciated how Gorsky's autochromes bring that era to life. I love the landscapes with water or smoke in them because they look so very dreamlike.

[@user-wc6vb3fn1s]

He shot three plates, so it's the plate version of Technicolor. Autochrome is one plate

[@This_is_my_real_name]

@@user-wc6vb3fn1s -- *_He shot three plates_* The Library of Congress exhibition (on their website) covers all the details of how he did his work, so I'm kinda shocked that anyone would think he used Autochromes. What I find _truly_ amazing is the Gabriel Lippmann interference phenomenon -- not only was it the _only_ TRUE "color photography" tech ever created, but, he did so in the 1800s! (And, won a Nobel Prize for it.) Moving along... I forget the name of the film, but back in the 1950s (and possibly the '40s too), there was a film that produced color transparencies using the same dot pattern technique used in the original RCA CRT color television -- Red, Green, and Blue filter dots that were used while exposing the single emulsion B&W film, and then, after it was given a reversal process (to create a positive instead of a negative), they were used as viewing filters. I have some tucked away in a folder (a _manilla_ folder, not a hard drive "folder") somewhere -- "family stuff" from way back when. Decades later, Polaroid used something similar for their "instant" slide (and movie) film. IIRC they used the stripe-pattern rather than dot-pattern, but the idea behind both was identical.

[@drewgehringer7813]

@@This_is_my_real_name that film from the 1950s sounds like it could be Dufaycolor? It's even closer to a film version of a digital photo sensor: it has a very fine mosaic of red, green, and blue squares. Polaroid's ones with fine vertical stripes were Polavision home movie film (kind of Polaroid's biggest flop) and Polachrome slide film, both of which were 'instant' in that you could put them in a special developing machine along with a packet of chemicals and get a developed roll of film in minutes.

[@This_is_my_real_name]

@@drewgehringer7813 -- Yeah, _Dufaycolor_ does ring a bell. I know my late father spoke of it while casually tutoring me on photographic history, and I could kinda swear that I at one point knew that the (120, IIRC) transparencies were Dufaycolor -- but can't recall _how_ I knew it. I _am_ certain that he never showed these particular frames to me when he was alive. They were in a box of "random stuff" I was handed as he lay dying in the hospital, probably rescuing them from the dumpster. Maybe the films were "lightmarked" with "Dufaycolor" before being spooled at the factory? If I knew where they were, I'd go look for them right now. Too much stuff, too little time... (especially now that I'm in my seventies, tempus fugit!)

[@martinhughes2549]

@This is my real name DufayColor was even used as a negative positive process for 35mm movies. Dufaycolor was 3 times faster than Autochrome.

[@CausticLemons7]

I love your alliteration! There's something so interesting and satisfying about wordplay, and I appreciate your efforts.

Adoringly awesome alliteration! Always amusing and absolutely appealing, I applaud your artistic attempts.

[@PyroX792]

These autochrome pictures remind me of ink-jet photos you'd see in school textbooks. If you get super close to the page you could see the individual dots of red, green and blue used to print the image on the page.

[@djthdinsessions]

Precisely, magenta, yellow and cyan, when it comes to ink

[@renakunisaki]

I always associated that with comic books.

[@theantipope4354]

Those weren't inkjet prints, they were half-toned printing plates: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halftone#Multiple_screens_and_color_halftoning

[@giangkim8789]

ok

[@derAtze]

Don't know if this disapoints or exites you, but today all cmyk images are printed with the same dots, same grid, same technique like the schooltextbooks. Just smaller dots, thats all. Doesnt matter if it's a halftone offset print, ink jet, laserprinter, sieve print....

[@jigpu2630]

Autochromes are one of the most elegant photography hacks ever. Right up there with tilt-shift perspective correction. "Just add potato!" was never something I expected to discover while on a tour of photographic history 😀

[@markwright3161]

Just like 'memory of a goldfish' and 'birdbrain', 'shot on a potato' is another inaccurately portrayed 'insult'. Goldfish actually have quite good memories, crows amongst other birds are some of the smartest animals out there, and now we see that 'potato cameras' are/were better than many earlier digital cameras :)

[@dwaynezilla]

Never underestimate the Power of Potato!

[@brentfisher902]

@@markwright3161 Another one is when one insults a restaurant for costing too much to get a 'bird portion'...birds actually need to eat a lot because flying requires a lot of calories. If you want a low quality memory, then you want an 'Aluminum Wire Recorder' or for a poor brain an 'Intel 186 chip'

[@eekee6034]

@@brentfisher902 A 186 stonks compared the computers I've been using lately. Just sayin'! :D Even the 6502 has an elegant design; almost pipelined. The Z80 not so much, but it's crammed with a huge lot of features for what it is. Now the Intel 4004; that would be an insult. It's known for being the first microprocessor, but it got that title by being stripped down to the point that using it was not fun.

[@IceBergGeo]

This is such a positive video. Thanks for being transparent about this process. You gave a pretty good picture of how it's done.

[@Tesseract_King]

I read this comment while I was in the middle of the video, and I'm afraid it might color my perceptions of it. That's not the kind of thing I take lightly! Of course, replying to your comment is only going to give it more exposure...

[@conwaytwt]

You deserve a silver metal for relevant properties.

[@HermanVonPetri]

You and I are on the same wavelength. It's such an in-depth focus on photography that I find very revealing.

[@Kylefassbinderful]

lol words

[@piniondesigns]

It even holds up in the light!

[@RCAvhstape]

As an amateur chemical photographer and printmaker I luurrv these photography vids, and this one might be the coolest yet. Not only is it a process I knew nothing about but those photos are achingly beautiful! Please do more of these kinds retro tech videos.

[@kelseyroberts1545]

I love how you explain things. You say it simply and work up information then repeat it in different ways. It's a wonderful teaching technique and your personality makes it very accessible

[@nickloh912]

Great. Thanks to you (at 2:35) I have that song stuck in my head now. Like I needed another reminder of how old I am... But seriously, thank you for the great video as always!

[@bernds6587]

It really catched me off guard. 😂

[@DanaTheInsane]

Be glad its that late. I have Peter Frampton to remind me how old I am.

[@maritoguionyo]

Yes

[@beepboop974]

We do this in scientific astronomy, You can hijack the colours and, instead of filtering just 'Red', you can filter for a specific wavelength. then figure out how much of certain element is in an image by how bright the "Red" is. Doing this on a continuous scale is what spectroscopy is

[@brentfisher902]

Less wishing, more doing...that's the power of The One True Church...Science.

[@sonvan6714]

ok

[@LMacNeill]

Wow -- I had no idea a single-plate color-photograph process was even possible that long ago. I figured all color photography and movies were created using techniques similar to Technicolor's three separate images until at least the 1940s or so. I can't wait to see your next video on this subject. Thanks for this!

[@russmartin4189]

Great presentation! I earned my MFA in fine art photography in 1974. I specialized in color, which made me one of the few doing it because it faded. Surprise, most of my large format Ektachrome transparencies are still as good as the day I shot them. It helped that I scanned the images about 20 years ago. In any case, I was aware of Autochrome at the time, but there is no way I would have attempted it. I would have needed to see the process completed in front of me first. I'm also the kind of person who wants immediate gratification and Autochrame is definitely delayed gratification.

[@jjmetrejhon1743]

SHOW US THE CAT!!! And in all seriousness, your ability to fully explain even the most complicated processes is something so enjoyable. I can't get enough of it, as well as the amazing history behind it all! So much of this is new to me and I'm so happy and grateful people like you (and Mr Hilty) take the time to experience these things and present them with passion, and an infectious delight. A new video from you always makes my day.

[@InfraSolart]

What a Technology Connection! I love the comparison to LCDs, they even need a backlight. Amazing!

[@Zerbey]

It's almost magical, I love how much passion you have for this subject as it shines through in the video.

[@SuPerbMusiCFan]

Nice pun

[@inzanozulu]

As soon as you mentioned a mesh of rgb blobs all I could think of was "A negative of a negative!" Human ingenuity will always fascinate me. I hope I'm able to have a stroke of genius like this some day.

[@ThierryWasserman]

If you are in Paris and want to see Autochrome images, probably the largest collection in the world is at the Albert Kahn collection in Boulogne. It is a gorgeous museum with a beautiful garden where thousands of images can be viewed with strong lights behind them. The crispness of these pictures with autochrome color noise is amazing. Pictures were taken all over the world in a project called Archives du Monde. Recommended. Strangely, the Lumiere museum in Lyon doesn't highlight this at all.

[@Thinginator]

I went into this video as a proud Idahoan hoping to turn the native crops of my land into stunning photographs, and have come away with the conclusion that that requires entirely too many steps for what you get, but I respect the people keeping the knowledge of the process alive. These are some beautiful photos.

[@jpdemer5]

Some techniques never go away: Cameras used on the moon and mars landers take three photos through three filters, and the images are later combined.

[@Nevir202]

if it's one camera element and three filters, what's the advantage over taking a single image? At first I was thinking you meant three camera elements, which would add a lot of redundancy, but I realized that's not what you said.

[@LeopoldoGhielmetti]

Not only on the Moon and Mars but also the Hubble and the James Web telescopes do the same. Almost all astronomical telescopes and satellites takes pictures with three or even more filters.

[@HardyYan]

Probably due to higher colour fidelity and better sensitivity. There are also 3CCD/3MOS camera in the broadcast industry.

[@Ravaxr]

@@Nevir202 If you have a monochrome sensor, you essentially quadruple the resolution compared to a bayer filtered sensor. Instead of 4 cells combining to make 1 single color cell in the final image, you can use 1 cell 3 (or 4) times to get the color instead, and combine later. If you use a standard sensor and never add a bayer filter, like Leica did with their Monochrom camera, you can just use the brightness of each cell as a pixel in the final image, thus that camera has what seems to be an astounding 40MP sensor, but a 10MP color camera actually has the same number of cells. This also removes the filter losses if you want to take a picture of very dim objects and are willing to sacrifice color. Overall it gives far more options.. You don't have to make just color photos. You can also add filters for UV, infrared, spectroscopy, coronagraphs, etc. without color filters interfering with the process.

[@jonathansims5924]

This also helps explain why astronomers love to share false-color images from space! I found out recently that almost all of the planets are actually quite different than the colors we normally associate with them. Venus is actually as white as a cue ball!

[@majorjohnson8001]

4:15 to 4:55 - I love how anything that moved between the different shots ends up with wacky coloring. It looks cool on the water ripples, giving it a prismatic appearance. In the field workers photo at 4:50, two of the people shifted position slightly and end up as color-blurry messes.

[@ethelredhardrede1838]

You can do that with a digital camera. Take three shots and then separate the colors, red from one, blue from another and green from the remaining shot. Never done it but it should work.

[@Loki-]

That's why he said this 11 seconds later. 5:01 and points out what you pointed out in the text on screen

[@nickwallette6201]

It kinda reminds me of bad JPEG compression, where the color subsampling is too low resolution to fit alongside the luminance changes.

[@eekee6034]

One of the first of Prokudin-Gorsky's pictures I saw was of a family. Everyone looked just right except for the baby. ;) It was also striking how much that farming family resembled a typical American farming family of the same period.

[@00SNIVY00]

21:40 I was thinking it looked like sensor noise the whole time! And it really sounds exactly like an incredibly early form LCD, which is the same concept, yeah? Light passing through a filter to display an image. You just need a really strong backlight to be able to see the image.

[@FightNightFellow]

Randomly came across one of this dudes videos one day, and now I'm hooked! His sense of humour kills me, he's kept a straight face while making hilarious super niche jokes and just keeps filming 😂

[@AnnoyingNewsletters]

Stay for the outtakes, then. 😅 In the hurricane lantern video outtakes he couldn't get through his bofa deez joke 🤣

[@LiveWireBT]

Thanks!

[@lucaslac124]

I think that this is one of the most fascinating videos that you've put together in some time. The process is incredibly simple, yet entirely effective! There are drawbacks, but this tech had some real potential.

[@kaitlyn__L]

The part about how much light was lost from the process reminded me of how dim early colour TVs were, for the very same reason, of losing over 2/3 of the energy to (the silver crystals/colour filters/shadow mask). Of course the same can be said about LCDs I suppose, albeit with much brighter backlights rather than a fixed-lifetime cathode ray beam. It’s only in very recent years we’ve been able to make more efficient colour filters, via quantum dots which squeeze the light into the desired wavelength rather than simply blocking the undesired wavelengths. Also yes, I couldn’t help but think it looked like sensor noise on low-sensitivity digital cameras too. Definitely neat.

[@adora_was_taken]

I wonder if quantum dots could be used in an application like this? Obviously no one would do it with film now, but maybe Bayer filters made of quantum dot grids would let more light through to digital sensors.

[@disketa25]

Well, the only problem of CRT was "you simply can't pump more light into it", there is no way to overclock the tube. Early film? Just pump more light. If that's not enough, use electrical arc lamp to pump even more light. Early LCD? Larger CCFL tube... Or two of them. Or four (seen such design personally, was intended for some outdoor purposes back then). You don't need to care in any way about efficiency for as long as you can resolve the problem in a dumbest of ways. I.e. as long as you can physically do it without risk (degradation/ignition temperature or pure light flux reaching levels which are dangerous by itself) or have any portability requirements (big flashlight asks for equally big battery)...

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@disketa25 yeah, that’s why I said “albeit with much brighter backlights rather than a fixed-energy beam”

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@adora_was_taken I was wondering about that too. I’m not sure how well they work with wide-spectrum light would be the issue off the top of my head - QDs in TVs currently squeeze one single-wavelength light into another. I haven’t looked into whether that’s for ease of manufacture or whether that’s a limitation on the technology itself for now.

[@naamadossantossilva4736]

It reminded me of dual-layer LCD,a tech that looked promising but went nowhere.

[@subaruanon]

I appreciate your CRT phosphor dot array shirt being worn for this topic in particular. This was truly fascinating, thank you!

[@Knifa]

I’d really like to know where to get one of those T-shirts!

[@volvo09]

The pixel shirt! (Runs and hides🙊)

[@demp11]

Isn't it a pentai matrix LCD Display?

[@adul00]

@@demp11 No, that's a CRT shadow mask (look it up on Wikipedia, especially the cursor image closeup). This channel also has a video on them.

[@RichardSilvius]

I’d love to see a similar video from you about Kodachrome - that whole process and how it was reproduced in print!

[@TheJtyork420]

Technology connections came on when I was asleep last night and this guy saved me from a bunch of robbers in my dream. I found this channel a while ago but now I apreciate it just a little bit more. Thanks for the channel bro it's great content and u bailed me out of a nightmare.

[@ajbp95]

This was supercool! It indeed bears a lot of resemblance with LCD screens. Especially when you take into consideration that you also need a lot of light from behind to see an image.

[@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721]

I guess you're right. The light behind the film is basically a screen.

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721 lots of modern lightboxes use developments in thin backlights and diffusion plates that were originally developed for LCDs :)

[@vyladence]

the timing of the release of this video was impeccable. I was trying to figure out what to do with my study hall right as I got the notification and it's just long enough to spend the rest of the period watching! this video was super entertaining! thanks for posting, Alec!

[@Dong_Harvey]

Your hair adventures throughout the years is helping me to feel comfortable growing out my hair after years of being impressed upon the notion of cutting to crew. Thank you, you are beautiful

[@thitran6105]

ok

[@roymarshall_]

Hell yeah I've been growing my hair out too

[@giangtruc3376]

ok

[@orangejjay]

I must admit, he's got some beautiful hair. Definitely looks better in this video than in some others....... 💁‍♂️

[@ericwebb1301]

For years and years I have wondered how Autochrome 'worked'. Now I know. Thank you SO much!

[@DeathMetalDerf]

I know you'll never see this, but I think I've watched every single one of your episodes now, and I have to say I really, really, REALLY enjoyed watching this one, and would absolutely love to know more about similar, possibly even more fiddly and obscure methods of film and photography than this was. Thank you so very much for the content you create, and the way in which you present these subjects. I never feel like you're talking over or at me. It's more like a very passionate friend explaining this really cool item, or concept they've just got done doing a ton of research on. It really is excellent content.

[@centurybug]

The history of color photography is so interesting (and rarely talked about)! I've been fascinated with early color photos since the 8 bit guy talked about Maxwell's technique in an old video. Can't wait to see more!

[@12askeland231]

Such a good video love that guys videos that aren’t strictly about 8 bit tech

[@paulrobinson3649]

The three colour filtered images reminded me of the Hubble Deep Field photography. Still in use when required.

[@thecaveofthedead]

Wonderful. I knew about autochromes, but this detailed explanation still blew my mind with many things I didn't know about them. Also I had no idea that Maxwell worked out the theory of capturing colour among so many other astonishing achievements.

[@Znatnhos]

It's always so awesome to see how incredibly inventive people had to be to create the tools and tech we take for granted today. Thank you for exploring these things and sharing with us!

[@aquelaquelaquelaquel]

The 80-90 vibe and quality of your videos is AMAZING - I look forward to your next one!

[@topintn]

Really interesting. My sister's husband used to do wet plate photography ... I think that is what it was called. They did civil war reenactments and wanted the pictures to look as much like what would have been produced at that time.

[@calvinf9218]

yep! I dabble in wet plate photography too :)

[@GerardHennemann]

For some reason I feel that these photographs are more real and trigger more emotions than the ‘flat’ digital ones we look at today. Some pictures you showed even gave me goosebumps 🥹

[@user-pd5ot4zd4b]

This is so dang cool! I first became aware of a "found" collection from the 19-aughts some years ago, a Dr from France I think, who was an amateur photog. I was astounded by how lifelike the collection was at 115 yr old. The article vaguely described the dyed starch method, but you really, umm, brought it to life!

[@IlliterateSage]

Thanks to Jon for documenting this old process, and to Alec for getting on "stage" and telling us why we should like it. Just because it's obsolete doesn't mean it should be forgotten. Typing this on a nine-year-old ThinkPad. My friend could read this on a thirty-year-old Mac (with a Raspberry Pi network bridge). Read an article today about restoring a 50+ year old computer. Saw a century-old video clip early on in this video. I'm donating a book about Western Europe in the time of the Romans. History is cool. Don't forget it.

[@TaylorLopez412]

Fascinating! Having grown up in the mostly digital age already, and never having participated much in photography as a hobby, it's VERY cool to be able to see how the manual, analog process evolved over the centuries! Thank you for your thorough and entertaining content!

[@Purp1eP3nguinZ]

I think you briefly allude to this, but Polaroid used essentially the same color filtering technique in their polavision and polachrome "instant" movie and slide film products. Instead of a randomized distribution of colored dots, I believe they used a grid arrangement, which gives an almost video-ey look to the images.

[@MonkeyJedi99]

Calvin: “Dad, how come old photographs are always black and white? Didn’t they have color film back then? Dad: “Sure they did. In fact, those old photographs ARE in color. It’s just the WORLD was black and white then. C: “Really?” D: “Yep. The world didn’t turn color until sometime in the 1930’s, and it was pretty grainy for a while, too.” C: “That’s really weird.” D: “Well, truth is stranger than fiction.” C: “But then why are old PAINTINGS in color?! If the world was black and white, wouldn’t artists have painted that way?” D: “Not necessarily. A lot of great artists were insane.” C: “But… But how could they have painted in color anyway? Wouldn’t their paints have been shades of gray back then?” D: “Of course, but they turned colors like everything else did in the ‘30’s” C: “So why didn’t old black and white photos turn color too?” D: “Because they were color pictures of black and white, remember?” - Calvin (to Hobbes): “The world is a complicated place, Hobbes.” Hobbes: “Whenever it seems that way, I take a nap in a tree and wait for dinner.”

[@jimmyzhao2673]

I thought that maybe there was a potato famine and couldn't get the ingredients to make colour photos.

[@merlyworm]

You hafta give Bill Watterson credit. He really captures the 'dad trolling his kid' damn well. Ive had conversations like this with my kids. and then gotten calls from school because 'Do you really lick cows and taste for e coli??'.

[@MonkeyJedi99]

@@merlyworm I also love when Calvin's dad explains how the maximum weight for bridges is determined. And then Calvin's mom says something like, "If you don't know, just say so!"

[@idkthatxool749]

@@MonkeyJedi99 Thank you so much ☺️

[@Kopekemaster]

I love Calvin's dad's explanations of scientific things like that. One that stands out to me is him saying the sun was the size of a quarter because you can hold up a quarter to cover it, and then telling him that it lands in Arizona or something every night.

[@QualityDoggo]

Fun fact some cameras can capture raw without debayering and it can be done in software to give just that little bit more control over the end product!

[@theblah12]

Correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t .raw files from a camera usually unprocessed images prior to debayering? I remember reading an article about how to process raw files completely from scratch, and one of the first steps was to process it through a debayering algorithm to generate a usable image from the file. I’m pretty sure when you open a raw file in Photoshop what you see has already been pre-processed in a number of ways by the software to get a usable image.

[@brentfisher902]

@@theblah12 This is what I used in a C function when I have a Canon SX280HS camera... --- void demosaic_decimate(unsigned char *redbuf, unsigned char *greenbuf, unsigned char *bluebuf, unsigned long *inwidth, unsigned long *inheight) { unsigned long y=0, z=0; unsigned char *tempred=NULL; unsigned char *tempgreen=NULL; unsigned char *tempblue=NULL; unsigned long width=inwidth[0]; unsigned long height=inheight[0]; unsigned long arraySize=(((width/2)+1)*((height/2)+1)); unsigned long halfwidth=width/2; tempred=(unsigned char *)malloc(arraySize * sizeof(unsigned char)); tempgreen=(unsigned char *)malloc(arraySize * sizeof(unsigned char)); tempblue=(unsigned char *)malloc(arraySize * sizeof(unsigned char)); if(tempred==NULL || tempgreen==NULL || tempblue==NULL) { exit(1); } for(y=0;y < height;y+=2) { unsigned long x=0, w=0; for(x=0;x < width;x+=2) { unsigned long bmpptr=w+z*halfwidth; tempred[bmpptr]=redbuf[x+y*width]; tempgreen[bmpptr]=(greenbuf[(x+1)+y*width]+greenbuf[x+(y+1)*width])/2; tempblue[bmpptr]=bluebuf[(x+1)+(y+1)*width]; w++; } z++; } for(y=0;y < height/2;y++) { unsigned long x=0; for(x=0; x

[@thetechfury]

This is quite interesting. The way that this antique camera captures a color image is really quite remarkable. It wasn't used in motion picture film until the late 1930's, but color photography existed in one form or another since 1903.

[@sarpkacmaz5910]

3 color Technicolor came in 1932

[@garryferrington811]

2-color in 1922.

[@what._._._]

Nice shirt. This is pretty incredible stuff. I'm amazed the technique can still be used, in basically the same way, and produce the same kind of pictures made over 100 years ago. Can't wait to see the next video showing the differences between the old school method and the new one.

[@earthling_parth]

It warms my heart to see such an excellent engineering appreciation video is still trending one day after being released ♥️

[@peterjf7723]

Excellent informative video, I remember covering this at university in the 1980s. There was a 35mm transparency film introduced in 1983 by Polaroid it used the same principle of exposure through the film base which had very fine alternating red, green and blue lines. It was sold with a home processing kit and slide mounts. It didn't stay in production for long, and had vanished from use by 1990.

[@recklessroges]

2:35 oh you're killing me! I literally almost choked to death because that was so funny. I love that the collaboration of Jon is, in itself a type of technology connection. Thanks Jon & our host, Alec.

[@zorloc111]

Wish my photography class taught THIS instead of being basically "Photoshop 101"

[@johndododoe1411]

How sad. I'm old enough that mine was all 24x36 and preparing custom length rolls.

[@jonhilty7434]

Do they teach b&w film, at least? I got my start in my high school classes!

[@eekee6034]

It was all focal length, aperture and film speed for me, though it wasn't actually a class. I read about it and didn't entirely understand any of it. XD I took a lot of landscapes with a fixed-focus camera instead.

[@NotCainNorAbel]

Going through the images on John's site and seeing modern items taken with what is a clearly old tech is amazing.

[@jo7hs2]

I’m so glad to see somebody replicating autochrome. I tried about ten years ago but ran into issues sourcing materials (mostly issues with fineness) that would work. I’m super fascinated.

[@davidmcgill1000]

4:24 That one is pretty cool. Can almost see the direction of movement in the water from the delay between the 3 shots.

[@Dr_Mario2007]

The more I think, the more I find it interesting as it's just like Bayer filter on the CCD, which essentially works the same way, with software picking out colors it want to compute first, if individually. Neat classic photography technique.

[@IcelandicGoblin]

Alec your hair just keeps getting more and more glorious, and thank you for feeding into my ADHD hyper-fixation on random interesting knowledge.

[@davidroyer5049]

I saw reproductions of old Autochrome plates decades ago and the explanation of the process in this video was beautifully done. I had not realized how simple and elegant the process was. Similarly, the explanation of how the pre WW I Russian color photos were taken was well done.

[@Fleischkopf]

early RED cinemacams worked similar by the way. to produce a sharp raw image, they split the light on 3 different sensors for rgb. so you had a high res raw image for every color channel.

[@The_Hanter]

So glad you mentioned Blue (da ba dee), my most favourite song in my life, I'm listening to this song at least once per day and still love it. I'm preparing cover for its 25 year anniversary and I can't wait for its release 😄

[@timewave02012]

I'd like to see Technology Connections cover solargraphs. I've taken a few and am interested in learning more about the chemistry, particularly how to stabilize and preserve the image.

[@paulcooper8818]

Thanks to Jon Hilty and *you* for this fascinating video. I'd heard of the term Autochrome and seen pictures of it (not the actual plate) but did not realize the complications of the process.

[@joeo6378]

19:38 I think that color dots looks a lot more like e-ink and how the new ones display color. Pretty neat.

[@theminecraft4202]

18:55 YES! I was waiting so long for you to say this, they're basically primitive RGB potato pixels.

[@gasleona]

The photograph "flowers with a watering can" is, I think, definitely one of the best photographs I've seen. It fills me with emotion I can't quite find the word for. Thank you Jon Hilty!

[@ManWithBeard1990]

Interesting factoid: Some digital camera sensors intentionally put a slightly blurry layer, the low pass filter, before the Bayer filter. This is to reduce aliasing, caused by not sampling the entirety of each color plane. If you wonder what that looks like, try taking a well-focused picture with a cheap phone camera of an LCD screen. Occasionally you tend to get that stripey screen door effect, because in some places the RGB subpixels of the screen nicely line up with those of the bayer filter, and in some they do not. The low pass filter some manufacturers put in front of that helps with this but does take away some of the sharpness that the debayering process could otherwise restore.

[@GlitchyBastard]

Not aliasing, moiré effect.

[@ManWithBeard1990]

@@GlitchyBastard Moire is a correct term, yes. But just to clarify, I used the word aliasing to refer to something that's also sometimes called frequency folding, whereby details in a signal with a frequency higher than half the sampling frequency don't simply disappear, but are recorded with a completely different frequency. In low-quality audio recordings you can sometimes hear this when someone is ramping up a jet engine or some other high-pitched machine, and suddenly the pitch appears to go down again. The machine isn't really slowing down, but the microphone is picking up sound well in excess of the maximum frequency that it can accurately record, and this frequency gets folded over, or aliased, onto another frequency band and what is recorded is not what's actually there. In a 2D signal like, say, a picture, this can happen in two dimensions simultaneously, and yes, that's exactly what moire is ;) Of course what video game designers call aliasing is something else entirely.

[@GlitchyBastard]

@@ManWithBeard1990 But in the field of photography, this phenomenon is usually referred to only as the moire effect.

[@oldtvnut]

@@GlitchyBastard True, but that term doesn't lead you to the extensive mathematical theory of it.

[@oldtvnut]

Autochrome plates, if coarse enough, will have aliasing also, but the random sampling of the grain positions results in the aliasing being randomly phase and amplitude modulated, appearing as a lower frequency random noise rather than a lower frequency coherent stripe pattern.

[@lankyjuggler]

This was so neat! Been loving the ingenuity and charm of the old photography in this series

[@nilz23]

Thank you for making these videos thorough and without oversimplified cartoons, quick cuts and unnecessary sound effects.

[@nilz23]

P.S. do a Mold-A-Rama video.

[@Respectable_Username]

Absolute genius! One of those things that's obvious in retrospect, but amazing anyone thought of in the first place! I love this channel

[@Luederjahn]

Would love to see this done with Adox Scala reversal film, mostly because the film base is more transparent -- which I guess is also heavily limited by the grain size of the starch/how much light they let through.

[@mmmfuhlendorf]

This is a fascinating series. I've always wanted to know the details behind the autochrome process and this video was amazing ❤️

[@dylangergutierrez]

Thank you for this explanation! I'm really into film photography, photography history, exotic development, etc. I had read about autochromes but it never really clicked for me until seeing this video how they really worked.

[@peterrenn6341]

Great explanation. As one of those people who works with obsolete photographic processes, thank you for your appreciation! - And kudos to John Hilty for bringing Autochromes back to the world.

[@michaelshultz2540]

Hmm that color screen stripped method you mentioned at 18:30 is just like a sony trinatron picture tube. Wow so sony was not the first to think of this method and amazingly they came up with it and created the best color picture tube on the market so much so that all the film And television industry used it as a standard. Just look at old tv shows and movies if you see a tv playing in it with an actual picture on it its a sony. Because trinatron tubes reproduce colors so accurately.

[@machinerin151]

Your hair has grown out quite a bit, we watched it over several videos. I think it finally looks decent nowadays, for this and maybe the other 2-3 newest videos already. Well done, Technology Connections man! I thought it was curlier than this though. Are you straightening it? I have long hair myself, but it was straight all my life. I don't know what I'd do if it was curly. Suffer while brushing, probably.

[@shableep]

At 8:16, if the "zoomed" image is large enough you could cross fade during the zoom and the switch between the two won't be noticeable by the human eye. But I'm guessing you were limited but the actual size of the zoomed image you switched to. Anyway, have experience with motion graphics and the thought crossed my mind. Thanks for another great video!

[@stickinthemud23]

Please do a video on the Foveon chip. It works the same way film does, with each “pixel” capturing all three wavelengths but at different physical depths.

[@amirreza6526gd]

I've been looking a long time for someone who explains each, and then relates them all! I knew some of them and now I know the relations! Thank you for this complete - yet simple - video

[@Nobe_Oddy]

hearing your fascination in your voice does SO MUCH JUSTICE for the the AMAZEMENT I ALSO FEEL when looking at how this MAGIC is created!!!! I am BLOWN AWAY TOO!!!! This really REALLY DOES blur the line between analogue and digital!!! THANK YOU!!!